37 injured in blast on NY subway

More than 30 people were injured, several of them critically, when an explosion - apparently caused by an incendiary bomb - shattered a subway train-carriage at a station in Lower Manhattan yesterday.

The blast happened at around 1.30 pm, just after the train had pulled into Fulton Street Station, close to Wall Street and barely a block away from the World Trade Centre where six people were killed by a terrorist bomb. "Every indication is that there was an explosive device," a police spokesman said.

" It was chaos, there was a huge ball of flame," said Mr Bennett Fischthal who was travelling on the carriage next to the one where the blast happened. "People panicked, they were running around burning, there was a woman with her hair burned off, rolling around on the platform trying to put out the flames." The injured, all suffering from burns or smoke inhalation, were taken up to the street. Later reports put the total of injured at 37, four of whom were in critical condition. There was n o confirmation of reports that one person had been killed.

Early reports that a second device had been discovered at the scene were later denied by police. Mr Fischthal said he heard what seemed to be a second explosion immediately after the first.

The FBI and city police were searching for clues to who may have planted the bomb and a possible motive for the attack.